Call it sledding, call it snowmobiling. One of Canada’s greatest snow sports is yours for the trying if you hire a guide.

First there’s a lengthy waiver and $1,500 credit card deposit. Then there’s the helmet, sobering safety lesson and tiny practise moves by the side of the highway to see if you can handle the powerful machine.

By the time Dan Arcand has calmly conveyed the seriousness of the pleasure ride we’re about to take, I’m panicked and tearful, even though I drove snowmobiles plenty of times growing up (in a very point A to point B way on ice-fishing jaunts).

“Maybe I could sit behind you and be a passenger instead of a driver?”